Thursday, February 25, 2010

on being 11 months old

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A few days ago, Nathanael passed his 11th month. Yes, that means here in one month, he will be a year old. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Of course the boy is being cute.



Communicating:
"Puh" when he stands at our knees, or beside the chair, indicating "Up." He uses that sound for other things, too, so I'm not going to qualify that one as "first word."

A few days ago, he held up his hand, and made a sound similar to "no." Again, not repeated, but worthy of note.

Desperate "Mamamamama" when he wants something. Anything, whether it's me, or not.



Sleeping:
He actually is kind of predictable in his sleep habits, even if we don't always get him to sleep. He wakes up about 7:00 am. He crawls all over us, until he decides to get off the bed "feet first"(our cue words). He likes a nap about 9:30 in the morning, give or take an hour. He likes one in the afternoon, about 1:30, give or take an hour. And, at almost 7 on the dot, he begins to fuss and make "lay me down in my bed, nowhere else is acceptable" noises. Just because he tells us doesn't mean we always listen. For instance, right now he is happily watching Star Trek with Jude and Elizabeth at 8:30 in the evening. He still told us at 7 that he wanted to sleep, though.



Mobility:

Finally. He's taking several steps in a row, and covering several feet at a time, toddling all the way. I expect that by 12 months, it will be his primary mode of transportation. Right now, he crawls much faster than he could manage a walk.

He likes to smack things. Any thing. His head against ours, boxes, noisy things. He pushes my large exercise ball across the room with his head.

He has found the joy of pulling everything out of a container (draw, box, bag, shelf). Sometimes, he thinks it is good to put things back into something, but not too often.

He loves technology. The "temporary" storage tubs for sorting outgrown clothing have become permanent guards for the home theater system.

He also moves quickly, which can make photographing him a challenge.

Monday, February 22, 2010

3 years ago

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On this date in 2007, we brought forth upon this land a precious baby girl. Happy third birthday, Elizabeth!

We had a party and invited some family and friends over. There was much eating of pink princess cake. And then waving of "wandza," Sleeping Beauty (in a variety of formats), a pink tea set, markers, and puzzles, and fun stuff, oh my!

There are several stories that I have to convey about Elizabeth, but I think those shall wait for another post.

Instead:

As I have approached the date of Elizabeth's birth, I can't help but think about the circumstances of her birth. I don't think I ever posted about her birth. Looking back at my posts from around then, I found that this was the first post after her birth. She was almost 4 months old.

I sometimes struggle with how Elizabeth's birth went down. We had planned a homebirth. We had two experienced midwives, my mom (a nurse, mother of 4) was there, my mother-in-law, mother of 11 homebirthed kids was there, and Jude, who had seen more birth than most men ever do. After laboring at home for several days, we decided to transfer to a local hospital for "augmentation" AKA Hello, Pitocin! Elizabeth was born about 8 hours later, caught by a doctor who, when he went to work that day, probably didn't expect a lady, her husband, 4 women and another man (my dad) to walk into hospital seeking help for a slow labor.

Ultimately, I had a healthy baby, and a healthy self. I didn't end up with a C-section, which we knew was a distinct possibility. I kept my humor throughout, and pushed that baby out without a hint of pain meds. I still sometimes feel that I gave up a homebirth too soon, or that I could have had that baby at home if we had just done something different. I'm grateful that in spite of things going differently than we had hoped we still had a positive experience. We feel like we were able to offer a positive testimony to the nurses and doctor at the hospital. But still... Sometimes I wish things could have been different.

I wrote the birth story afterwards, and it's pretty long and pretty amazing how everything came together in just the right way. It would require some editing before posting, but perhaps that's something I'll get to eventually.

I'm glad I get to celebrate my little girl. She's precious!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

getting fit... again...

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For the past month and a half, I've been working at getting regular exercise back into my routine.

I'd been at the same weight since 6 weeks after I gave birth. And that was actually up a few pounds from my post-birth low. I was at my highest non-pregnant weight. It was higher than I ever had been after Elizabeth's birth.

I was about a year post-partum when I finally started to shed the weight after Elizabeth was born. Here I am, again about a year post-partum, finally at a point where I can start managing some weight loss.

I was actually inspired by being sick. We had an unpleasant illness in our house that caused me to loose 4 pounds in one day. Extreme. However, once I was done and recovered, I maintained the lowered weight. Well, Gee, here I am just 10 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight!

For the most part, I've managed to exercise at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week. I found some exercise videos on Netflix, and I stream them to my TV, giving me an assortment of videos. I've been doing some strength training and some walking on the treadmill, too.

I haven't been managing my food very well (all the sweets in the past 3 weeks has not done favors for my weight.)

I'm please, though, that I'm exercising again. I have a way to go - I'm aiming to get rid of about 35 pounds. But I'm looking forward to feeling better every inch of the way!

Friday, February 12, 2010

midwives for Iowa, too!

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For all you Iowans (or who have friends in Iowa) -

There is a good shot this legislative session of getting certified professional midwives licensed. Supporters of the bill are looking for those who believe that families should have the right to choose where to have their babies, including at home with a legal midwife. Currently, direct entry midwives (like CPM's) are not legal in the state, and can be prosecuted for attending a birth. I know of one who has been prosecuted in the past few years.

Please, take some time to write to your legislators in support of legal midwives. You don't have to want to have a home birth yourself, you just need to think women should have the option if they want it.

Here are some links for more information:

http://friendsofiowamidwives.blogspot.com/2010/02/write-your-reps-now.html
http://www.friendsofiowamidwives.org/

And, after you've written your letter, contact someone else and encourage them to write a letter as well!

I've had a homebirth, and I had a homebirth transfer to a hospital. It was because my midwives were experienced and knew what to do that I had two healthy babies, and a healthy me at the end of both labors.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

missing out on cookie day

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Today is Cookie Day at the Missouri State Capitol. Homebirth and midwifery supporters are (hopefully) out in force, sharing the good news about legal midwives and homebirth (and, of course, lots of yummy cookies!) with our state legislators.

I went last year, 36 weeks pregnant, with a toddler. I was hoping to be able to show off the healthy, home born baby that they saw me pregnant with last time, but alas, my kids and the weather conspired against me. Elizabeth didn't feel well yeserday, had a fever last night, so no go for today.

Instead, I'll borrow an idea from our Iowa neighbors, and send letters in a red envelope to my legislators. No cookies, but at least it will be a noticeable piece of mail!
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